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Cancer beliefs and diet self-management among cancer survivors with comorbid diabetes

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Abstract

Purpose

Illness beliefs impact disease self-management; however, little is known about the impact of patients’ beliefs about one illness on the management of another illness. We sought to understand how cancer beliefs impact diet self-management for cancer survivors with diabetes and whether a change in beliefs leads to a change in dietary adherence.

Methods

Seventy-eight participants with diabetes and recently diagnosed early-stage breast, prostate, lung, or colon cancer were recruited. Participants were surveyed at enrollment and after 12 months about their cancer and diabetes illness beliefs and dietary adherence. Associations between beliefs about cancer and diabetes to diet adherence at baseline and at 12 months were assessed. Change in diet adherence was examined in relation to beliefs about each illness.

Results

The mean age was 62 years, and 23 (32%) identified as black non-Hispanic, 22 (31%) as white non-Hispanic, and 14 (19%) as Hispanic. Participants with more threatening beliefs about both cancer and diabetes at baseline had worse adherence to a diabetes diet than those with less threatening beliefs. However, at 12 months, those with more threatening cancer beliefs had better dietary adherence than participants with less threatening beliefs. Diabetes beliefs were not associated with diet adherence at 12 months.

Conclusions

While threatening illness beliefs may initially result in worse diet adherence, over time these beliefs may result in increased activation for better self-care and improved diet adherence.

Implications for Cancer Survivors

Understanding how cancer beliefs impact diet self-management for diabetes may provide co** strategies to improve cancer survivors’ management of comorbidities.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge Jody-Ann McLeggon, Sarah Prieto, Margaret Yoon, Alexandra Rosenberg, and Janey James for their help with patient recruitment, interviews, and study management. We would also like to thank the participants for their time.

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was supported by the National Cancer Institute (1K07CA166462 to JJL).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of General Internal Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    Kimberly A. Muellers, Karisma Pantaleon, Juan P. Wisnivesky & Jenny J. Lin

  2. Department of Psychology, Pace University, 52 Broadway, 4th Floor, New York, NY, 10004, USA

    Kimberly A. Muellers

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai Beth Israel, New York, NY, USA

    Chloe Soukas

  4. Midwestern University Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA

    Rebecca Zeidman

  5. Division of Endocrinology, Northwell Health, Great Neck, NY, USA

    Yael T. Harris

  6. Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    Juan P. Wisnivesky

Authors
  1. Kimberly A. Muellers
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  6. Juan P. Wisnivesky
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  7. Jenny J. Lin
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the manuscript topic and design. KAM and CS performed all analyses and developed the initial abstract and manuscript draft. CS, RZ, and KP conducted the literature review and wrote and revised the final manuscript text. JJL was responsible for the initial hypotheses and supervised the manuscript’s development. YTH provided expertise on diabetes mellitus in cancer survivors and made substantial revisions to the manuscript. JPW guided statistical analyses and made substantial contributions to both the tables and text. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kimberly A. Muellers.

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Conflict of interest

Authors Kimberly A. Muellers, Chloe Soukas, Rebecca Zeidman, Karisma Panaleon, Yael T. Harris, and Jenny J. Lin declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Author Juan Wisnivesky received consulting honorarium from Banook, PPD, Sanofi, Atea, and Prospero and grants from Regenron, Axella, Sanofi and Arnolds Consultant.

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Muellers, K.A., Soukas, C., Zeidman, R. et al. Cancer beliefs and diet self-management among cancer survivors with comorbid diabetes. J Cancer Surviv 18, 900–906 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-023-01340-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-023-01340-1

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